Recent content by opticjim

I took out all the coral and a bowl rock infested with bristel worms over 5 water changes of 30 gallons I replace with 5 bags 100lbs of live sand nitates are down to about 40 and tank cleared 1 hour after sand was placed on bottom and then cut bag open All fish survived and are looking great...

these are the worms on the bowl rock amazing to me this is maybe a 5% sample I have tons more any resale value anyone know what these are good or bad for tank? Jim

Hi :D after 5 water changes all the chrushed coral gone today in the last change i vacummed a large piece of bowl rock Oh my god never seen so many brisle (fire?) worms hundreds some as big as 2 inches in big balls :twisted: I pulled the rock it was coated 100's of worms 8O sort of makes...

on the replacing crushed coral my advice is conflicting my plan was to vaccume it all out then put in live sand, should i vacumme half then add sand then the other half should the sand intergrate with the 20 year old coral? I pulled out about 1/5 with a 30g water and tank reading are the same as...

well 30 gallon water change got rid of about 1/5 of the crushed coral I am thinking of changing out water every 3 days or so and take out more coral Is this too often?

the local fish store advised 200 mg erythromycin per 10 gallons and it will dissapear in a week or so, what do you think? attached is picture of the stuff,

Hi i have a 37g reef tank and alot of this hair algee Any ideas on how to get rid of it? :cry:

wow thanks i am getting a much clearer picture of what to do The only thing i am not fimialar with is a refugium and where to get one and what to put in it microalgee, is this a new thing or is there a thread to cath me up on this I have a 37 gallon reef tank as well and this sounds like a...

ok agreed not too much live rock, now i have a big sump so are bio balls the best media and if not what does belong in there. I am thinking to remove small amounts of balls each week and replace with ??. If i use rock do i submerge it of does or water drip over it? also is the large sponge...

how does one estimate the amount of live rock? i like the idea of rock in the sump what is the other item you keep in there?

i have tought of removing the bio balls but grew up old school with them do i replace them with anything or is the sump left empty? I do wash a third of them evry 6 months or so, big sump should i take out a few at a time? thanks for you advice there are very few fish stores in this area...

i have a sump filter with bio balls and a red devil protien skimmer there is a bunch of live rock from a reef tank but it is more dead than live i have 3 4 foot lights but not enought to support the rock can you attach pictures to this post?

Thanks good point on washing the bag! i have been vacummimg it every water change, it comes out pretty nasty my nitates are getting pretty high, any recomendatios on how much live sand for a 125 tank? also anyone know how long i can go with a bare bottom :?: the amount of those red and black...

Hi I have a 20 year old 125 gallon salt water with 5 fish all over 7 years old 2 tangs 1 angel fox face, and a very large brital star, anyway i believe it might be time to replace the 2-3 inches of coral on the bottom. Can i vacumme out the coral over two - four water chages say every two weeks...